


Always

by ohstardustgirl



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Blood, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Injury warning, Rebelcaptain - Freeform, Rebelcaptain Secret Santa, Rebelcaptainsecretsanta, battlefield romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 06:23:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17198186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohstardustgirl/pseuds/ohstardustgirl
Summary: Rebelcaptain Secret Santa gift exchange 2018!For @kausaustralis - prompt was Jyn injured but still kicking ass, while Cassian freaks outJyn is hurt during battle, and Cassian realises just what he’s willing to risk for her





	Always

With a single blaster shot, Cassian’s heart stopped. Everything around him turned to grey as Jyn collapsed to the jungle floor without a sound as if she had only fainted. His dreams for the future - a life with her, a life without her - suddenly balanced on a knife edge. Without a care for the relentless fire coming from the dozen Imperial troops hiding in the trees, Cassian ran from behind his cover to where Jyn lay crumpled. He was vaguely aware of blaster fire singeing his shoulder and other shots flying past his head. Jyn groaned as he scooped her up like a rag doll and he ran through the thick trees with Stormtroopers on their tail, feet slipping on the mulch of old leaves in the tropical climate. His heart hammered in his throat when he finally came to a stop in the thick brush and the blaster fire from behind went silent. He should still have been fighting, taking down as many enemies as he could so that he could escape with the stolen data, for the cause... but all of that seemed insignificant compared to the blooming patch of blood on Jyn’s belly. He refused to think about a time when he would have left a partner behind in this very situation.

He felt sick at the sound of her whimper as he pulled her jacket and shirt away from where she had been shot. There was too much blood and damage to see clearly, but it was more than just a surface wound. He pulled a bacta patch from his jacket pocket. It wouldn’t be enough to actually heal anything with how deep the wound was, but he hoped it would stem some of the bleeding.

"Need to... you need to get out of here," Jyn groaned as Cassian pressed the patch hard on her belly, and all colour left her face. “Leave me here.”

"Jyn, we need to get you back to the ship." The jungle had gone quiet save for his pulse thundering and Jyn's laboured breathing. The Stormtroopers would be regrouping and preparing to attack. He risked peeking out from behind their cover and couldn't see any glimpses of white. They had already taken down half a dozen Stormtroopers before Jyn was hit, and given how remote the outpost was Cassian had hopes that it would be a long time before any reinforcements arrived by ship. Time was still running out.

"I’ll slow you down too much,” Jyn ground out as if reading his mind, her brow knitted. She tried to sit up straight and clutched at him as sweat dripped down the side of her face. “We got the the intel we came here for, don’t let it go to waste for me.”

“Hey,” he held her face, forced her glassy eyes to focus on him, and pushed back the strands of hair that had become plastered to her forehead. With all the gentleness and determination she inspired in him, he told her plainly, “I am never leaving you behind. Not today, not ever. Understand?” He didn't give her a chance to respond, just held her gaze as he pressed her blaster into her shaking hands. “You’re going to make it. But if you can’t run, we fight until the coast is clear. Then we’re getting out of here together, or not at all.”

He thought for a moment she was going to argue and tell him just to run for it, and so it was a shock when she grabbed the front of his jacket, pulled him down to her and kissed him hard. It was the first time his lips had touched hers. She tasted of sweat and blaster discharge and the reality of it was just as perfect as his fantasies, and over too quickly. “For luck,” she whispered. 

Cassian blinked himself back to his senses, and gently guided Jyn to her knees. She steadied herself against the trunk of the tree in front of her before peeking out from behind the cover. In any other circumstance he would have been filled with affection and pride at her determination. In the few months that he had known her he had not yet gotten used to the mix of feelings she inspired in him. Now that swell of love was tainted by the bitterness of fear. Her wound was bad and they both knew it. They were outnumbered and the ship still a long way off, and he doubted the few medical supplies they had on board would be enough to heal her. He shook his head and readied himself for the inevitable firefight. If he let those thoughts take hold of him, he might as well surrender. Hope would keep him going for the both of them.

A sliver of white appeared immediately from behind a tree and Cassian aimed and fired in the space of a breath. He cursed and ducked back as his shot missed and fire was returned. Jyn had more luck even with her trembling arms: her shot hit another 'trooper who twirled backwards into a heap among the bushes. Cassian took aim once more and this time was successful. After every shot she took, Jyn would close her eyes and lower her weapon as if summoning great strength to do it all over again. She was pale and shaking. He wasn’t going to lose her. But every time they took cover from Imperial fire, the Stormtroopers were taking advantage to both split apart and slip further forward. Pretty soon Jyn and Cassian would be surrounded. Cassian kept going, kept taking any advantage he could while the enemy dropped one by one and blaster bolts exploded against the trees that covered them. 

He counted four left when his blaster died.

“Kriffing sons of-” Jyn groaned as she ducked back down without grace, and clutched at her side panting, dropping her own blaster. “Cass, just go!”

He looked at her, pale and shaking, and knew they couldn’t wait it out any longer. They would have to take their chances on the run. “Together, remember?” He threw his own useless blaster to the trees and hauled Jyn up to her feet, bracing his arm around her. “I’m not leaving you here. I’ve got you.”

He had no plan beyond getting her to their ship. Were it not for the adrenaline of battle and his otherwise preoccupied mind he would have been terrified by how easy it was to choose to risk his own life in the vague hope that she would survive. 

Suddenly, there was a shout from one of the soldiers, and for a moment the jungle was quiet again. The hackles rose on Cassian’s neck as a silver grenade landed with a light clunk just a few feet away from them. 

“Run!” Jyn shouted, practically pushing him away from her, as if hoping to save him just as he was willing to sacrifice himself for her. The beeping of the grenade sped up to a near constant whine and Cassian grabbed Jyn and threw her forward on the shockwave of the grenade. 

Everything went black.

 

Cassian awoke to ringing in his ears and an aching head. Daylight had faded to dusk and the bright white security lights on the outside of the communications tower hurt his eyes. His hands were cuffed behind him, his comm was no longer on his collar, and he was kneeling in the damp ground, propped up against the wall. His years of training kicked in and he noted that his only company was four 'troopers, one of whom must have been injured in their firefight and was also slumped against the building with blood smeared on his helmet. 

Jyn, he thought, and his stomach dropped. His head spun and his vision greyed at the edges as he looked around frantically but there was no sign of her. Had they left her out there, injured and near death and not worth their effort? Or had she been dead before they had even reached her? Bile rose and burned in his throat. The pain of his concussion was insignificant compared to the thought of losing her. Rage made a surge of energy run through his aching body and he tried to climb to his feet because Jyn Erso could not be lying dead and forgotten in some backwater jungle lightyears from civilisation, not when she had always burned brightly enough to destroy the Empire from pure determination, not when he was madly in love with her and he hadn't even told her.

He had escaped Imperial custody before, and survived interrogation, but he couldn't see a way out of this one. His back was agony, he was weaponless, and outnumbered. Still he struggled to his feet, wobbling with his hands behind him. He had no plan, just anger, violating the first rule of being a good soldier. One of the Stormtroopers shouted for him to get back to his knees and Cassian charged him. His reward was the butt of a blaster rifle to his gut, and Cassian collapsed to his knees in the dirt once more. 

"Don't waste your time, rebel, unless you want to end up dead like your friend out there," another 'trooper mocked, "I mean, you're going to die anyway, but it's going to be on a Star Destroyer after a long talk with Imperial Intelligence."

Cassian spat bile to the ground, and hung his head. He wasn't leaving this planet, not without seeing Jyn again, whether she was alive or dead. Despite his years of self-control, his breath came in ragged gasps and he had to screw his eyes shut to focus his thoughts and stop his emotions from controlling him. There was a lockpick in his boot. If his captors were distracted he could free himself from the cuffs, and then - 

His thoughts were shattered by the sound of metal on Stormtrooper armour. He looked up and saw a whirling dervish of batons, hitting at such close range that the 'troopers couldn't even raise their blasters or fight back. Jyn growled and grunted as she moved and even though it was obvious that she was holding back and barely able to straighten up without wincing in agony, but she had taken full advantage of being able to sneak up on the soldiers and attack from behind. Helmets cracked and joints shattered beneath the speed and weight of her blows.

As all three 'troopers collapsed in a heap, battered and unmoving, Jyn grabbed up one of their blasters, fired a shot into each fallen soldier, including the one who was already injured. She fell to her knees, breathing hard, in front of Cassian. The wet, shining blossom of blood on her shirt had grown darker and larger, seeping through to her vest and staining her hands. He wanted to hold her so badly that it was an ache in his chest.

"I thought you were dead,” he said inanely, wondering if he was hallucinating from his concussion. If it was, it was the best dream he ever had.

“So did they,” she panted as she reached around him to bust his cuffs. As soon as his hands were free they were on her, holding her by the upper arms. Her green eyes shone with tears in the white light. “But I couldn’t leave you.”

At that, Jyn collapsed forward against Cassian and he held her tight as he swept her up bridal style on his own shaking legs. She was cold and pale and that indomitable strength of hers seemed to have finally run out. 

“You did so good, love,” he whispered to her as he picked his way through the bodies of the fallen ‘troopers to find the right path. “Please don’t give up yet.”

Cassian started running.

 

Jyn lay on a small bunk, pale against the white sheets in the low light. Cassian’s head still throbbed. It wasn’t his first concussion and wouldn’t be his last, and it seemed insignificant in comparison to her injuries. He could get looked at later, once he was sure she would be alright. He didn’t want her to wake up alone. After Scarif only a few months before, she had been the one sitting vigil for him, and the sight of her beside him had been the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He held her hand tightly between both of his, as if willing his strength into her.

His heart fluttered as she stirred with a soft groan, and he couldn’t recall ever having seen her so vulnerable. There were dark circles under her eyes but she was still so beautiful.

“I don’t remember leaving the planet,” she croaked and squeezed his hand as if testing that he was really there.

“I almost lost you on the ship,” his heart wrenched at the memory of her faded fluttering pulse as he had raided the ship’s meagre medical supplies. “But you held on just long enough to get here.”

“Where are we?”

“Base Zeta. It isn’t much, but it was the closest to us. Bacta is very limited so they had to do things the old-fashioned way.” 

Jyn winced as she tried to move. “That explains why I still feel like I’ve just been shot. Hey,” She tugged on his hand a little, just enough to draw him out of the memories of her blood on his hands and clothes. “Thank you, for not leaving me. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.”

“I’ll just keep doing it then. And thank you, for saving my ass.”

“Anytime,” she treated him to a beautiful but tired smile. 

He looked down at their joined hands, emotion making his throat tight. The last time he had declared his loyalty to her he had been able to look her in the eye with an audience, but this... this was different. This was just for them, not the cause. This was one heart opening to another, the smallest thing in the grand scheme of the universe compared to the war. His voice trembled and he realised then just how much he had been holding back since she was hurt. “I meant what I said, Jyn. And it’s not just about what we do together as soldiers, on the battlefield. I meant it for us, as people, as... friends. I won’t leave you behind. Never, as long as I have a choice, and if we’re ever apart I will come back for you. Always.” He raised her hand to his lips, and kissed it softly as a promise, relishing the warmth that had returned to her skin. 

A long moment passed, and as the silence stretched out he thought he had overstepped and misread her heart. But then he heard her sniff, and when he looked at her again her eyes were shining with tears and she was still smiling. 

“Always,” she echoed him through her tears, “come here.”

Jyn tugged on his hand until he leaned over her, and just like on the battlefield, with that endless bravery of hers that he loved so much, she pulled him down to kiss her and he knew things would never be the same again.


End file.
